Operational Guide to Hothouse New Frontiers
Programme
We try to locate everything to do with our programme here:
www.hothouseprogrammes.ie
We strongly recommend you spent some time becoming acquainted with the resources we have
located there for you. The Hothouse Management System (HMS) is also located on this website,
by logging in you have access to your components of the HMS.
The objectives of the Phase 2 Programme
The goal of Phase 2 is to develop a sustainable business that is represented by a well
produced business plan. To facilitate this we will set up a Box folder for each of you with a
number of commonly used Business Plan templates in it for you. This folder will be shared
with those that will be helping you progress your business plan i.e. our Core Facilitators,
Business Plan External Reviewers and the Hothouse Management.
Each Phase 2 is composed of 3 Sprints, each Sprint is 2 months long ending in an Enterprise Ireland
Interim Review. In terms of a general theme to each Sprint (while acknowledging that all participants
are at different stages):

Sprint 1: Market research at the Enterprise Ireland Market Research Centre, primary research
with target customers.

Sprint 2: Develop beta product for testing with target customers identified in Sprint 1, start
bringing Interns onboard to build out the beta product.

Sprint 3: Finalise the Business Plan based on the results of the market research and beta trials.
Guide to Hothouse Tools
To help make the New Frontiers programme as beneficial as possible to Participants we use a number
of web tools, Google Calendar, Linkedin and Box.
SCHEDULING
Workshops - we use Google Calendar for scheduling of Workshops
The link to your calendar is here:
https://www.google.com/calendar/embed?src=hothousenf3%40gmail.com&ctz=Europe/Dublin
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This will be the definitive version of your schedule. As each Sprint is planned and dates agreed with
the Facilitators we send you Google invites to sessions that are relevant to you.
Each session on the calendar is obligatory for your 85% attendance rate unless it is marked with a V
for Voluntary. Attendance of the official/obligatory events will count towards your overall
attendance rate of 85% which must be maintained to be eligible for the tax-free Enterprise Ireland
Scholarship.
If your attendance rate falls below 85% we will need you to provide us with explanations for any
event missed in order to retain these explanations in case of future audit. The link to the ‘Sorry, I
couldn’t make it form’ is located on the Resources page of www.hothouseprogrammes.ie
Please accept all event invitations as soon as you receive them. This allows the Facilitator to see exact
numbers of attendees. If you would like all Hothouse Phase 2 events to appear automatically in your
Google Calendar then click this setting (however we do not recommend this as a number of
participants have said they found it confusing to find events/sessions that are not specifically for them
in their personal calendar).
1-to-1 Clinics/Individual Slot Events Scheduling (such as Interim Reviews/Business Plan
Feedback Sessions) – Box
Due to their flexible nature we use a different approach for 1-to-1 clinics and all events that provide
an individual slot for each participant. For such events we have a Slot Selection System in a sheet in
Google Drive which will be shared with you. If your preferred slot is gone (or if it is a Schedule of
slots pre-determined by Enterprise Ireland) then we ask you to follow the procedure below for
swapping your slot.
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Slots occur in two situations on our programme:
1. Panel/Interim Review interviews: In this case the schedule for each participant will be
set by Hothouse based on the requirements of the visiting panel member/Enterprise
Ireland representative.
2. 1-to-1 clinics with Facilitators: A series of empty slots will be published in the Google
Drive Slot Selecting System and you are free to select a time that suits you from the
available slots.
If the available slots do not suit, or in the case of a schedule set by Hothouse for Panel
interviews the slot that has been assigned to you does not suit, please do the following:
1. Do not add/create a new slot that suits you. The slots published on the schedule are
the only ones available due to the commitments of the person/s you will be meeting.
2. Contact one of your group colleagues on Phase 2 to see if you can swap slots. You
can either do this by direct contact or by the Hothouse Phase 2 Linkedin group.
3. It is your responsibility to ensure that any swaps you agree are accurately reflected in
the Schedule document as after the cut off for swapping this is the official schedule
that will be used.
You have all been allocated Edit permissions on this slot selection sheet so that you can
update the schedule directly. Once you have agreed a swap then update the Schedule with
details of your swap.
Staying Informed – Programme Updates
For all Programme updates we use LinkedIn. The reason we do this is that past Participant
feedback is that they find it hard to keep track of lots of emails coming in, a central location
where all relevant updates are posted was preferred.
We request that you post programme related questions in the Linkedin group to enable all
other members of your group to see responses from the programme manager.
Your group, Hothouse New Frontiers 3 Phase 2, can be found here:
http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=5095419&trk=myg_ugrp_ovr
In order to ensure that you don’t miss any important announcements please set your group
settings (please see screenshot below) to New Email for each post. Facilitators have been
requested to post any details regarding assignments set etc. for Phase2 to the Linkedin Group.
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DOCUMENT SHARING
We use Google Drive for collaboration on documents between Hothouse, Core Facilitators
and our Participants. Interim Review forms, Business Plans and any other documents
relevant to the programme are stored securely in Box folders created for you and your group.
Naming convention for uploaded files: Please help us out by identifying any documents you
upload to Drive by placing your name at the beginning the file name like so:
Participant Name_Document Details_Date
ATTENDANCE SHEETS
In the past we only collected attendance of Participants at workshops/1 to 1’s via manual sign
in sheet. For audit purpose we will continue doing this however we will also now be the
Facilitator completing the attendance on their Facilitator feedback form using a Google form.
Your Feedback
It is important that we capture your feedback for all Workshops and Clinics as it has a direct
input into our decisions about the programme’s composition.
Towards the end of each Workshop please go to www.hothouseprogrammes.ie – Login using
the details which we will supply to you shortly by email (we recommend changing your
password once you login) and go to the ‘FEEDBACK FORMS’ link and complete the form.
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In respect of Clinics your facilitator will commence the Feedback Form procedure and ask
you to complete Section 2.
Opening Hours of new DIP automatic gates
The gates are open:
Monday to Friday
5am to 9pm
Saturday, Sunday
9am to 5pm
Bank Holidays
Closed
General Workshop Etiquette
Workshops: We are keen that all participants get an equal opportunity to get the maximum
benefit from workshops. We ask that questions relate to general matters that have the
potential to be relevant to all participants at the workshop. Due to the fact that confidential
matters relating to individual participant’s business opportunities are discussed at Workshops
only the Participant themselves (as opposed to team members) can attend Workshops.
Clinics: In terms of Clinics we recommend that only the Participant attend as if the team is
being mentored there is potential dilution and loss of momentum.
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NEWS
Please send us your news so that we can Tweet it!
Contact details
For general queries (dates, details etc) please email
hothousenf3@gmail.com . For things you need Eoin’s personal feedback
on please ring 087 737 6622 or drop up to room 25A in the Centre Block.
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